Cost of living: Firmus Energy to cut gas prices in Northern Ireland

Firmus is Northern Ireland's largest supplier of natural gas

Gas supplier Firmus Energy is to reduce prices by up to a fifth for more than 100,000 customers in Northern Ireland.

The move reflects a fall in wholesale gas prices in recent months.

The drop comes into effect on 1 January and is expected to cut household bills by an average of more than £400 a year.

Customers in the Ten Towns Network - which includes Antrim, Armagh, Ballymena, Coleraine, Craigavon, Londonderry and Newry - will see their tariffs cut by 20.52%.

In the Greater Belfast Network area, tariffs will go down by 17.6%.

It covers Belfast, Lisburn, Bangor, Holywood, Donaghadee, Larne, Groomsport, Millisle, Newtownards, Carryduff, Comber, Newtownabbey, Carrickfergus, and east Down.

Firmus says this will reduce the average cost of gas by £8.831 a week in Ten Towns and by £7.922 in Greater Belfast.

On a yearly basis, this will save customers an average of £460 and £410, respectively.

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Firmus is Northern Ireland's largest supplier of natural gas and supplies 111,000 customers across the region, including 63,500 in its Ten Towns Network area.

The price reduction comes into effect on the same day as a change to the UK government's Energy Price Guarantee Scheme.

Currently, the government price cap reduces the amount people can be charged per unit of gas by 4.826p per kWh.

That will fall to 3.893p per kwh but consumers will be no worse off due to the lower wholesale price.

Firmus says the cap equals a further 27.6% reduction to bills.

'Not a one-way street'

A typical household in Northern Ireland using electricity and gas as their main fuels will pay an annual equivalent of about £1,950 under the price guarantee.

In September, Firmus announced a 56.3% price rise across both its networks.

At that time, the utility regulator John French said the combined regulated electricity and gas bill in the Northern Ireland Ten Towns area would be £3,150 a year from 3 October.

Kevin Shiels, acting chief executive at the Utility Regulator, said the announcement offers some welcome relief to gas consumers.

"Changes to consumer bills in Northern Ireland are not a one-way street," he said.

"Our job is to make sure that consumer bills reflect the costs of providing the service, and we said we would act quickly should falling wholesale costs allow us to reduce bills.

"Recent and sustained falls in wholesale costs have allowed us to approve a fall in Firmus energy's tariffs.

"Firmus Energy's announcement today will mean that the combined regulated electricity and gas bill in Ten Towns area will be £2,174 a year from 1 January 2023.

"This compares to the price cap in Great Britain, where the combined electricity and gas bill for the average household will be £2,867 a year from 1 January 2023."